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Battle 10k Fun Run 6/9/2015

Members of Hasting & Rother RAYNET Group (H&RRG) turned up at the Green at about 08.00 to put up the mast and connect the radio in preparation for this now well established event.

The start of the junior race started at 09.00am and the road closed for the duration f the race and was over in 10 minutes with the crowd cheering the runners on.

The senior race started at 10.00am but before the start all operators have to be in place around the course. Unfortunately the pmr’s that we used to connect two RAYNET members on some very dangerous bends in Catsfield that have stop go boards in operation for traffic control would not work due to the distance and terrain that they had to cover, so plan B was put into operation. This consisted of a 2meter handheld give to one of the operators and they used the working frequency for the group – on the day – to talk directly to each other. Only other issue was that the group normally put an operator in the lead vehicle with a Mag mount on the roof. A problem arose when the lead vehicle turned up – it was a Land Rover with an aluminum body! So the Mag mount had to go on the seat inside the vehicle. This caused a small amount of communication problem in some areas but was easily overcome by correct message handling between operators.

The role of the group at this event is to notify the organisers of where the runner are and the leading numbers so they could prepare the road closure at the right time and not inconvenience the traffic to much.

The race went well for the organisers, even though stop go boards were not in place in time for the start of the race and marshals had to use their hands to control the traffic, with the eventual winner breaking the course record by some 29 seconds. Free food was supplied by the organisers for all the operators and marshals, which was accepted without hesitation.

The group would like to thank the organisers, Battle Bonfire Boys, for inviting H&RRG to participate at this event and look forward to being asked to assist next year.

We should also thank those members of the group for turning out; Antony G4CUS, Linda, Chris 2E0EOE, Dave G7LEL, Mike M0OFC, Phil G3MGQ and Steve M0SSR.